As concern for the 75 civil liberties activists arrested...

As concern for the 75 civil liberties activists arrested in Cuba in March 2003 and currently jailed under harsh detention conditions rises, Hands Off Cain and the Italian Helsinki Committee are promoting an exhibition in Rome to draw attention to their plight.
The collection of images by controversial photographer Oliviero Toscani is entitled "Thought is forbidden: the face of repression in Cuba".
The Roman stage of the travelling exhibition was inaugurated by the Mayor of the City of Rome Walter Veltroni, the creator Oliviero Toscani, and HOC General Secretary Sergio D'Elia. "Cuba is not the happy isle of communism and freedom, as we've been told to believe for forty years," D'Elia denounced.
"The dream of revolution and the myth of Che Guevara have been shattered in the harsh reality of Fidel Castro's Cuba - the dictator whose hold on power is now longer than any other dictator's.
"However it seems that many - the anti-global movement, the one-track minded pacifists -have not realised this. Persecution of political opponents, repression of every type of independent expression, artistic, journalistic, cultural, the death penalty for those who attempt to flee the Cuban 'paradise' - this is Cuba."
The poet and journalist Raul Rivero is one of the 75 dissidents in jail. His wife Blanca Reyes, sent the following message:
"For a year and seven months now, my husband finds himself in the Canaletas prison serving an unjust sentence of 20 years. In the last few weeks, his situation, which is already a difficult one, has become worse by the constant harassment of a guard and two common prisoners who threaten him and consistently come up with ways to impede his ability to communicate with other prisoners.
He is also prohibited from receiving medical treatment for the many things that ail him, all of which have been contracted and diagnosed during his imprisonment. And lastly, he is forbidden conjugal visits for an indefinite amount of time. Yet, the cause for my husband's liberation, thanks to many generous people and institutions around the world, continues to grow. Recently, in Prague, Strasburg, Madrid, and Granada, notable figures and important officials from Latin America and Europe have manifested their public support for my husband and his colle agues.
The Ministers of Spain and Mexico have petitioned the Cuban government's representatives at the United Nations for the release of the 75. Raul's spirits are still high, and he has asked me to reiterate to you his appreciation for the international campaign on behalf of his and his colleagues' liberation. Thank you."